noble cause. Though as a rule he has abstained from using his great influence to direct the course of public affairs, he has not hesitated once and again to break silence, and announce his opinion with no uncertain sound when occasion seemed to demand it. He has been a hearty and consistent supporter of free-trade and of religious freedom. When Messrs. Parker and Son addressed their "Bookselling Question" in 1852 to all the principal authors of the day, Alfred Tennyson replied: "I am for free-trade in the bookselling question, as in other things."[1] He was a subscriber, together with Mr. Carlyle and Mr. Ruskin, to the Eyre Defence Fund, to the secretary of which he wrote as follows:
"I sent my small subscription as a tribute to the nobleness of the man, and as a protest against the spirit in which a servant of the State, who has saved to us one of the islands of the Empire, and many English lives, seems to be hunted down. . . . In the meantime, the outbreak of our Indian mutiny
- ↑ "The Opinions of Certain Authors on the Bookselling Question" (London: John W. Parker and Son, 1852), p. 61.
